China to stay neutral
BEIJING, June 29 — Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif left for home, cutting short his visit to Beijing with China maintaining a neutral stance on the Kargil issue urging both Pakistan and India to quickly resolve the crisis through dialogue and negotiations.

USA, China in touch on Kargil
WASHINGTON, June 29 — The USA is in touch with China to “urge India and Pakistan to avoid escalation (of tension over Kargil) and pursue an approach consistent with the steps that the G-8 has stated”, State Department spokesman James Rubin said.

‘No Sharif-Clinton meeting planned’
ISLAMABAD, June 29— Contradicting an earlier statement by army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf that efforts were on to arrange a meeting between Premier Nawaz Sharif and U.S. President Bill Clinton to sort out the Kargil crises, Pakistan today said that there was no such ‘‘agreed programme’’.

Primakov may contest presidential poll
MOSCOW, June 29 — Amid media speculation over Russian Cabinet stalwart Nikolai Aksenenko becoming the next Prime Minister before contesting the presidential election, former Premier Yevgeni Primakov has hinted he might also join the fray.

10 Tigers killed in fresh attack
COLOMBO, June 29 — The Sri Lankan army said today that 10 more Tamil militants were killed in a fresh advance on the key highway connecting north-western Mannar with the northern Jaffna peninsula taking the toll of rebels killed in the operation to over 250 during the last weekend.

Kargil operation had Sharif’s ‘nod’
ISLAMABAD, June 29 — Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was not only aware of the Kargil operation of the Pakistani army but had himself approved its “basic contours”, contrary to the belief held by a section of Indian leadership, a leading English daily reported here today.

Dhaka-Calcutta bus service delayed
DHAKA, June 29 — The start of a commercial bus service between Dhaka and Calcutta has been delayed till the weekend, a Communication Ministry spokesman said here today.

China to stay neutral
Sharif mission fails

BEIJING, June 29 (PTI) — Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif left for home, cutting short his visit to Beijing with China maintaining a neutral stance on the Kargil issue urging both Pakistan and India to quickly resolve the crisis through dialogue and negotiations.

"China hopes Pakistan and India will jointly ease the current tense situation in Kashmir and settle existing problems through dialogue in the interest of the people of South Asia," Chinese President Jiang Zemin told Mr Sharif during their talks here.

"Without peace and stability in South Asia, there will be no meaningful peace and prosperity in Asia....As close neighbours to South Asia we are deeply concerned with the conflict in Kashmir," state-run China Central Television quoted Mr Jiang as saying.

Later briefing newsmen on the talks, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said "China has always followed an independent foreign policy of peace and is committed to the preservation of peace and stability in South Asia."

In this context, "China will, as always, play its due role," she said.

Mr Sharif, who arrived here yesterday on a six-day working visit, briefed the Chinese leadership about the latest developments in Kargil and Pakistan’s efforts to defuse tension, she said.

"Pakistan and India are important countries in South Asia....We hope they can proceed from peace and stability of the region and adopt peaceful means to settle the dispute and make further efforts to avoid aggravation of the dispute," the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Urging both nuclear powers to exercise restraint, she confirmed that Mr Sharif had given a detailed briefing to the Chinese leaders about the current conflict in Kargil and Pakistan’s efforts to de-escalate the situation.

"During talks and meetings with the Pakistani side, China has listened to their briefing on relevant situation. The Chinese side is deeply concerned about the situation," she said.

Mr Zhang, however, denied that Beijing and Washington were making joint attempts to defuse tension in Kashmir.

"I am not aware of this," she said replying to a question on US State Department spokesman James Rubin’s statement that Washington was in touch with Beijing on the issue.

Mr Sharif has since left for Hong Kong cutting short his six-day visit down to two days over the Kargil crisis. He is scheduled to reach Pakistan early tomorrow.

USA, China in touch on Kargil

WASHINGTON, June 29 (PTI) — The USA is in touch with China to “urge India and Pakistan to avoid escalation (of tension over Kargil) and pursue an approach consistent with the steps that the G-8 has stated”, State Department spokesman James Rubin said.

“The US has worked closely with China since the nuclear issue first arose last year. We share an interest in not allowing this issue to escalate and trying to damp down the incentives for an arms competition in that part of the world,” said.

Denying that Washington was trying to mediate between India and Pakistan, Mr Rubin at a regular briefing here yesterday described the US role as “trying to be helpful.”

“I think it is fair to say that US diplomats play a role in many parts of the world without being considered mediators. Mediator is a certain term of art in this business, and that is not what we are doing,” he said.

The commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Central Command Gen Anthony Zinni and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Gibson Lanpher visited Islamabad last week to ensure the withdrawal of Pakistani incursion from the Indian side of the LoC.

“Let me say that General Zinni had productive talks in Pakistan late last week,” Mr Rubin said, adding:”We remain in close contact with the Indian and Pakistani Governments to urge them to work together to resolve the crisis.”

Mr Rubin, however, gave no indication that Islamabad had agreed to pull back from the Indian side of the LoC.

Asked if Pakistan had agreed to withdraw its forces, he declined to discuss what he called private diplomatic exchanges. “The talks were productive and constructive but I don’t want to get into the details.”

He said Mr Lanpher had briefed Indian officials in New Delhi on those talks in order to keep both sides fully informed.

Stressing the need for a rapid diplomatic resolution between India and Pakistan, Mr Rubin said the USA and the international community had an interest in seeing the Kargil crisis resolved.

“This must be done directly between India and Pakistan... we are urging the two sides to talk to each other to resolve the dispute.

“It is certainly our hope that following a resolution of this crisis, there can be a quick revival of the Lahore process, which is a process that we strongly support,” the State Department spokesman said.

To a question whether the USA would say that most of the infiltrators were Pakistani soldiers, Mr Rubin said: “I don’t have anything to say about the composition of the forces...we have stated we want to see the withdrawal of the forces supported by Pakistan”.

Mr Rubin denied that US officials were contemplating efforts to hold US multilateral aid to Pakistan unless it backs down. “Nothing of this nature has been proposed.”

Ocalan sentenced to death

IMRALI ISLAND, Turkey, June 29 (Reuters) — A Turkish court today sentenced Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan to death for treason after a separatist campaign in which over 29,000 persons were killed.

Ocalan, standing in a bullet-proof glass box in the Imrali prison island courtroom, showed no reaction as Senior Judge Turgut Okyay told him he must hand. The verdict, however, will reverberate around the country and could raise fears of Kurdish activist violence in Western Europe.

“(He has) murdered thousands of innocent persons without regard to babies, children, women or the elderly,” said Judge Okyay, wearing a traditional black robe with high, scarlet collar.

“His activities constitute a serious, immediate and great danger to the country,” he added.

The moustached Ocalan, dressed in a brown double-breasted jacket with open neck shirt, listened to the judge impassively, his eyes darting from side to side occasionally.

After the verdict, approved by all three judges, was announced the courtroom resounded to a rendering of the Turkish national anthem.

The mothers of soldiers killed in the fighting held up portraits of their sons towards Ocalan.

The police has stepped up security throughout the country for fear of retaliation by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) Ocalan led through 14 years of fighting. In Western Europe there were fears of a repetition of Kurdish activist violence that accompanied Ocalan’s capture.

During the month-long trial Ocalan has swung between breathtaking declarations of loyalty to the republic he had so long fought, and threats of thousands more deaths if he is hanged. He offered to bring his fighters down from the mountains if spared the rope but spoke of 5,000 suicide bombers willing to die for him if he mounted the gallows.

Italy and Germany were at loggerheads with Turkey, late last year after Ocalan, driven from cover in Syria by a vigorous Turkish diplomatic campaign, was arrested at Rome airport.

Italy refused to extradite him to Turkey, citing its opposition to the death penalty, and Germany declined to press an arrest warrant issued years before. Ocalan, with Turkey on his heels, fled again, via Russia and Greece, finally seeking sanctuary at the Greek embassy in Nairobi.

How Ocalan was played into the hands of the Turkish special forces there is still a matter for speculation. But when first pictures of Ocalan, blindfolded and handcuffed on a Turkish aeroplane appeared on television for a stunned nation there were few questions.

‘No Sharif-Clinton meeting planned’

ISLAMABAD, June 29 (PTI) — Contradicting an earlier statement by army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf that efforts were on to arrange a meeting between Premier Nawaz Sharif and U.S. President Bill Clinton to sort out the Kargil crises, Pakistan today said that there was no such ‘‘agreed programme’’.

"There is no agreed programme of the Prime Minister to visit the USA", Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Tariq Altaf told Pakistani media in Beijing when quizzed about the possible summit between Mr Sharif and Mr Clinton.

The denial comes two days after General Musharraf told mediapersons in Karachi that efforts were on to arrange a meeting between President Clinton and Mr Sharif to break a stalemate between the two sides on Kashmir.

While Pakistan has been obdurately refusing to withdraw its infiltrators from Indian territory, the USA has publicly blamed Islamabad for the intrusion and demanded that it should withdraw its forces to defuse the tension.

Mr Altaf, accompanying Mr Sharif on his truncated two-day trip to China amidst intense pressure from the USA to withdraw from the Indian side, denied reports that Mr Sharif had called up Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee yesterday from Beijing.

"I categorically deny that our Prime Minister rang up the Indian Premier from China, official Pakistani news agency APP quoted Mr Altaf as saying.

Pakistani media today carried reports from New Delhi that Mr Sharif called up Mr Vajpayee after his special emissary Niaz Naik, carrying fresh Pakistani proposals to solve the Kargil crisis, returned from a secret mission to New Delhi.

10 Tigers killed in fresh attack

COLOMBO, June 29 (PTI) — The Sri Lankan army said today that 10 more Tamil militants were killed in a fresh advance on the key highway connecting north-western Mannar with the northern Jaffna peninsula taking the toll of rebels killed in the operation to over 250 during the last weekend.

Claiming that its troops inflicted heavy casualties in the two day heavy fighting during the last weekend, an army release here said troops conducting the mopping up operations recovered 97 bodies of the rebels.

The release was, however, silent about the casualties suffered by its troops. On Sunday the army said 16 soldiers were killed and the figures had not been updated so far.

Enquires at north-central Anuradhapura hospital revealed that bodies of 27 troops and an LTTE cadre were brought to the morgue there.

Primakov may contest presidential poll

MOSCOW, June 29 (UNI) — Amid media speculation over Russian Cabinet stalwart Nikolai Aksenenko becoming the next Prime Minister before contesting the presidential election, former Premier Yevgeni Primakov has hinted he might also join the fray.

According to a Kremlin observer from the daily Moskovsky Komsomolets, the “number-two man’’ in the Cabinet, Mr Aksenenko, has already been chosen to be “anointed” the next Premier and later, more likely, will be nominated the palace’s presidential candidate.

Quoting sources lose to Mr Yeltsin the paper’s news analyst, Mikhail Rostovsky, says the presidential administration and close aides have already carried out consultations over the past two weeks. Their verdict reads:

“Mr Sergei Stepashin will resign sometime now and Mr Nikolai Aksenenko will step into his shoes for sometime before contesting the presidential election in June next year.’’

However, a source, whom the paper described as “a big-league politician of Russia”, said everything might be redecided in future as Kremlin kept changing its mind all the time.

Meanwhile, Mr Primakov has given indications that he might contest the presidential election.

“Anything might happen to my political career,” he told journal Vlast yesterday.

The journal has emphasised that Mr Primakov is determined to function as an independent statesman not aligned with any party, front or clan.

Only such a figure can function as a national leader and has the country’s rescuer, note observers here note while commenting on Vlast’s prognosis.

That Mr Primokov enjoys the highest popularity rating all over Russia is accepted by his worst detractors, political observers point out.

He has been successful in maintaining his public image as someone who brought political and economic stability to Russia, says news agency Novosti.

When BBC anchor cornered Kissinger
By Janine Gibson

It was probably not how former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wanted to start the week. After an extraordinarily bad-tempered interview with journalist Jeremy Paxman on an early morning BBC radio debate programme on Monday, Dr Kissinger left suddenly in the middle of the broadcast.

What was meant to be a gentle opportunity to plug the latest chapter in his memoirs for the 75-year-old diplomat, turned into a scuffle as he could barely conceal his rising temper during a “challenging” interview with Mr Paxman.

Dr Kissinger, who had been reluctant to appear at all on programme, was clearly unaccustomed to the robust questioning of Paxman. However the former US Secretary of State got off lightly compared to the former British Home Secretary Michael Howard, once famously asked the same question 13 times by Paxman on a television news programme.

On three occasions Dr Kissinger accused Paxman of inaccuracies in his questions — at one point suggesting he had been promised an easy ride, responding: “I wonder what you do when you do a hostile interview”.

That followed Paxman’s question: “Did you feel a fraud accepting the Nobel prize [for the Indo-China peace agreement]?’’

After two questions from his fellow guests, Dr Kissinger left the studio muttering as Paxman interrupted himself to bid him a hasty “thank you and goodbye”.

Suspecting that he would be “set up” by the other panellists, the diplomat had warned BBC that he might not stay for the round table debate and, as soon as his interview had finished, he left the studio.

Protracted last-minute negotiations revealed that he was concerned that some of his more controversial positions, such as the bombing of Cambodia and his more recent support for Gen Pinochet, might prove unpopular in the adversarial show.

He is understood to have been told by production staff that he did not have to join in the debate. He had expressed his unhappiness at the line-up of fellow guests, including human rights campaigner and lawyer Geoffrey Robertson and writer Frances Stonor Saunders, whose book on the influence of the CIA is just about to be published.

Before their meeting on air this morning, both Mr Robertson and Mr Saunders had said how much they were looking forward to challenging Dr Kissinger. They had to get in quick, however, before the man Paxman described as the world’s most famous diplomat decided enough was enough.

A BBC spokeswoman denied Dr Kissinger had stormed out of the programme, saying the production team had always known he might not stay for the debate. In a statement, the BBC said: “The challenging conversation in this morning’s Start The Week (the title of the morning radio programme) between Dr Kissinger and Paxman made fascinating listening.

“We welcomed his contribution to the programme and hope he would join the debate with the other guests, although we were aware that this might not be possible. Sadly he chose to leave the programme after the interview,” the spokesman added.

— The Guardian, London

Kargil operation had Sharif’s ‘nod’

ISLAMABAD, June 29 (PTI) — Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was not only aware of the Kargil operation of the Pakistani army but had himself approved its “basic contours”, contrary to the belief held by a section of Indian leadership, a leading English daily reported here today.

The Nation, in an investigative report, said that even in Islamabad there was widespread belief that the Kargil operation was the “Army’s way of wing-clipping Nawaz Sharif”, but this belief though, “tempting, is misleading,” it said.

The report based on extensive background interviews in the Pakistani political establishment said that “Mr Sharif has been kept in the broad picture of Pakistan’s Kashmir policy whose basic contours he himself approved”.

Dhaka-Calcutta bus service delayed

DHAKA, June 29 (AFP) — The start of a commercial bus service between Dhaka and Calcutta has been delayed till the weekend, a Communication Ministry spokesman said here today.

“Officials and guests are to make a trip tomorrow but passengers will be able to enjoy the Dhaka-Calcutta run from July 3”, he said.

The bus service, officially launched by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on June 19, was due to start taking passengers today.

The ministry spokesman said the delay was owing to a three-day public holiday in Bangladesh.

Officials said other bus routes would be opened between the two countries depending on the success of the Dhaka-Calcutta service.

NASA mission
LOS ANGELES: A $ 240 million NASA mission to land a probe on the surface of a comet for the first time and drill beneath its surface has been scrapped, a victim of the space agency’s tight budget. The mission was axed on Monday to make more money available for other projects like a Hubble space telescope repair mission and future mars exploration, said Mr Edward Weiler, head of the NASA’s space science programme. — AP

Jackson got burns
MUNICH: Michael Jackson received minor burns from fireworks used in a charity concert. The pop star was treated and released after Sunday’s show featuring 30 performers, including Luther Vandross and Boyzone. “Jackson’s burns were nothing serious,” a hospital spokeswoman said. It wasn’t his first brush with pyrotechnics. He was hosptialised with second-degree scalp burns in 1984 after his hair caught fire from a smoke bomb while filming a commercial. — AP

Female condoms
PHNOM PENH: The Cambodian Health Ministry is considering the widespread introduction of female condoms in a bid to empower sex workers dealing with drunken customers, a daily reported. The daily said on Monday that tests, with the backing of the United Nations and foreign health groups, were likely to start as part of a countrywide anti-aids initiative that encourages 100 per cent condom use. — AFP

Digesting bribe
HARARE: A policeman who swallowed the evidence when colleagues caught him taking a bribe at the weekend was foiled when an X-ray examination revealed the two notes in his stomach. A police spokesman confirmed on Monday that the constable was now under close observation in a hospital here. “We have to get the money out by whatever means,” one of the arresting officers was quoted as saying in Daily News. — DPA

Gold rush
KUALA LUMPUR: An American evangelist has sparked a “gold rush” in churches across Malaysia with Christians claiming God has filled their teeth with silver and gold, a report said. The Star newspaper on Monday said reports of the “miracle” dentistry began appearing after US evangelist Steve Jones conducted two “healing meetings” in March. The newspaper said those who responded to Jones’ invitation to be prayed over found their teeth and gum ailments were healed. Some even noticed their grey or black fillings had changed to a shiny silver or gold. — AFP

Degas fetches $ 28 m
LONDON: A pastel painting on paper by impressionist Edgar Degas fetched a record £ 17.6 million ($ 28 million) at elite auction house Sotheby’s “most successful ever” sale. The auctioneers on Monday said its 47-lot sale, which included works by artists, including Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir and Pablo Picasso, raised some £ 50 million. — Reuters

Fred Feast dead
LONDON: Actor Fred Feast, who played a glum-faced bar assistant in the soap “Coronation Street” for more than a decade and recently appeared in the acclaimed British movie “Little Voice”, has died at 69, his family said on Monday. Feast died in a hospital in Bridlington, northern England, on Friday after suffering from cancer and an abdominal illness, his wife Kathleen said from their Scarorough home. — AP

Protestant march
BELFAST: About 1,500 members of the Protestant Order of Orangemen expressed their defiance of a ban on their planned march next weekend at Dumcree by parading on Monday through predominantly Catholic neighbourhoods in the Northern Ireland town of Portadown. The march planned for Sunday has been banned by a parades commission because of concern that the traditional protest action could trigger violent unrest.— DPA